There were pre-Christmas smiles all round for the Cram family after young Marcus came home to win the Saltwell Harriers' under-13 race in Saltwell Park.

Fourteen-year-old Marcus recorded his first-ever victory - and he did it in fine style after timing his finish to perfection to overhaul long-time leader Jamie Robson, of Gateshead Harriers.

The victory was exceptionally sweet for the Morpeth runner for cheering him on from the sidelines were his illustrious father Steve and also Steve's parents, who have shown as much interest in their grandson's athletics career as they did their own son's.

At the North East Cross-Country Championships seven days earlier, Marcus had finished outside a medal place in fourth position while Robson had picked up the silver award, so he had the honour of turning the tables on this occasion.

In the under-13 girls race, which was run in conjunction with the boys, Birtley's Steph Loraine crossed the line in fifth place to finish seven seconds clear of runner-up, Cath Samuelson, of Gateshead.

In the girls contest at the same age level, Morpeth's Zoe Armstrong was just as impressive, winning by over half a minute from Gateshead's Daisy Bell with Jarrow and Hebburn's Eleanor Murray in third place.

Elswick's Jonathan Pearson continued his improved form to win the under-17 men's event, finishing seven seconds clear of Seb Foy with Gateshead's John Gibson in third place.

In the women's event, Gateshead's Lyndsey Dodsworth had no difficulty in repeating her 2004 victory ahead of Birtley pairing Carla Donnan and Fiona Hopkins.

Despite the wet and muddy conditions, there were three tremendous Newcastle upon Tyne School Cross Country races, with the number of competitors up for the third year in succession.

In the Minor race three runners, Andrew Davies, Lewis Hogg and Callum Johnson broke away from the pack after the first lap.

Unfortunately, the leading threesome miscalculated the number of laps and sprinted at the end of the second lap only to find they still had a lap to go.

The threesome bravely carried on and they were all to feature in the main positions, with Andrew Davies holding off Lewis Hogg to become City Champion with Callum Johnson in third place.

In the team competition, Walbottle became champions with the unique help of the Johnson triplets, sons of the former AAA 3000m champion Alan Johnson.

In the Junior race Jamie Robson, the Great North Run runner-up, took an early lead and managed to withstand a late charge from Jonathan Day to become Champion.

Thomas Walker came through late to take third place from his team-mate Louis Battista but it wasn't enough to deny Royal Grammar the team title.

John Gibson and Tom Perrins broke away from the main pack early on but it was Gibson who got the upper hand over the last two laps. Karl Moloney tried valiantly to close the gap on Perrins in the last lap but fell nine seconds short to take third place.